Hard surface cleaner

ABSTRACT

A hard surface cleaner comprises (a) one or more alkyl or alkenol ethoxylated amides, (b) a glycol ether or a C 6  -C 11  alcohols, and (c) optionally, an anti-static agent.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to compositions for cleaning hardsurfaces, and in particular to compositions suitable for cleaning glassand glossy or shiny surfaces.

A particularly important feature of such compositions is that thesurface wnen cleaned must not have any streaks or smears and, althoughnumerous compositions for cleaning glass and like materials have beenproposed, providing compositions which clean effectively whilst avoidingstreaking or smearing has been a particular technical challenge.

A further desirable feature of cleaning compositions for glass and shinyor glossy surfaces is the ability to reduce or to avoid the build up ofstatic charge. It will be appreciated that the presence of static chargeon the surface causes the rapid re-deposition of dust and like particlesby attraction of such particles onto the surface from the air. Thebenefits achieved by cleaning of the surface are thus rapidlydiminished.

One known cleaning composition, in particular for glass, comprises anaqueous solution of less than 1% sodium alkyl sulphate and sodium alkylether sulphate surfactants together with a grease removing solvent.Whilst this composition shows satisfactory cleaning and non-smearing ornon-streaking properties, the composition does not impart anti-staticproperties to the surface.

European Patent Application EP-A-0621335 discloses aqueous cleaningcompositions comprising 0.1 to 10% by weight of a non-ionic surfactantand 3.5 to 10% by wieght of a glycol ether solvent. The compositionsare, however, not hard surface cleaning compositions but are insteadaimed at achieving broad spectrum anti-microbial activity, an acceptablelevel of skin irritation and/or an acceptable cleaning efficacy.

DE-A-3614336 discloses hard surface cleaning compositions aimed atimparting an anti-static effect to the surface without smearing. Thecompositions disclosed comprise an amphoteric co/terpolymer having atleast one nitrogen atom per acrylic acid derivative and a surfactant,preferably of the amine oxide type.

Accordingly, the present invention seeks to provide a cleaningcomposition, in particular for glass and glossy or shiny surfaces, whichhas good cleaning properties, does not cause smears or streaks, and alsohas good anti-static properties, that is, the ability to reduce orprevent the build up of static charge on the surface.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to the present invention, there is provided an aqueouscleaning composition for hard surfaces comprising by weight,

0.1%-0.5% of one or more alkyl or alkenyl ethoxylated amides,

1%-10% in total of at least one member selected from the groupcomprising glycol ethers and C₆ -C₁₁ alcohols and, optionally,

0.005% to 0.5% of an anti-static agent.

The compositions may also include minor amounts (usually less than 1%)of further optional ingredients such as fragrances, colourants, and thelike, as known in the art.

DETAILED DISCLOSURE

Particularly preferred for use in the present invention are ethoxylatedamides having the general structure: ##STR1## Where R is an alkyl oralkenyl radical having from 10 to 25 carbon atoms, preferably 12 to 22carbon atoms, and n is preferably an integer in the range of from 10 to20. Especially suitable are mono-unsaturated alkenyl ethoxylated amidesof which oleyl ethoxylated amide and erucic ethoxylated amide areespecially preferred. Suitable ethoxylated amides are available in theCromidets™ series from Croda Chemicals Ltd, UK.

In the preferred formulations, the ethoxylated amides are present inamounts of from 0.1% to 0.5% and more preferably from 0.2% to 0.5%.

The glycol ethers and/or alcohols of the inventive compositions arepresent in a total amount of from 1% to 10%, more preferably from 3%-6%,and especially from 3.5% to 5.5%. Preferred glycol ethers have thegeneral formula

    R.sup.1 --O--CH.sub.2 --CH (OH)--R.sup.2

where R¹ is a straight chain or branched lower alkyl radical, preferablyhaving from 1 to 6 carbon atoms and R² is a lower alkyl radical whichmay be straight chained or branched and preferably has from 1 to 4carbon atoms. Particularly preferred glycol ethers are propylene glycoln-butyl ether (butoxypropanol) and propylene glycol methyl ether(methoxylsopropanol). Ethylene glycol monobutyl ether is alsoefficacious, but is less preferred for environmental reasons.

Whilst formulations comprising essentially the above ethoxylated amides,and glycol ethers and/or alcohols provide excellent cleaning, anti-smearand anti-static properties on surfaces such as glass and many shiny orglossy hard surfaces, a sufficient reduction of the static charge onplastic surfaces (such as vinyl, acrylic or polycarbonate surfaces) maynot be achieved. Such static charges are generated by the tribologicaleffects of cleaning the surface with, for example, a cloth and alsosimply by movement of air across the surface. As mentioned above,dissipation of such static charge is important in order to avoidre-deposition of dust particles from the air. Plastic surfaces are, bytheir nature, more susceptible than is glass to tribologically inducedcharge, and this charge is not easily dissipated.

The inventors have found that the static charge on such plastic surfacesafter cleaning can be significantly reduced by incorporating anantistatic agent into the above compositions.

The anti-static agents of the invention are water soluble quaternaryammonium compounds which contain a polypeptide chain coupled to fattyalkyl groups. A typical structure of these compounds may beschematically represented as: ##STR2##

where A₁ and A₂ are portions of amino acids, X₁ is a portion of thepolypeptide chain, X₂ is another portion of the polypeptide chain endingin a carboxy terminal amino acid, Y represents a carbon atom in thepolypeptide chain and n and m may be the same or different and areintegers in the range 8 to 20, preferably 10 to 18, especially 12. Theanti-static agents may include one or more further side chains S andhave a molecular weight of not more than 10,000, preferably not morethan about 2000 and especially about 1000. Particularly preferredcompounds may be based on collagen or keratin proteins. Especiallypreferred is a keratin based fatty (C₁₂ H₂₅) quaternary derivative ofhydrolysed keratin (lauryldimonium hydroxypropyl hydrolysed keratinprotein) which is commercially available as Croquat K (™) from CrodaColloids Ltd, UK. The antistatic agent is preferably included in anamount of from 0.01% to 0.3%, and especially an amount of from 0.05% to0.15%.

It is believed that the instant inventive formulations are particularlyadvantageous with regard to the prior art formulations based on sodiumalkyl sulphate and sodium alkyl ether sulphate surfactants in thataddition of antistatic agent to formulations including these surfactantsresults in smearing on cleaning.

Thus, the combination of the ethoxylated amides and the antistaticagent, together with the glycol ethers provides excellent chargereduction on plastic surfaces whilst also avoiding streaking andsmearing on the surface. The inventors believe that this combination ofcharge dissipation and non-streaking/smearing is not achieved by theprior art compositions.

The compositions of the invention may also advantageously include awetting agent, in particular a fatty alcohol ethoxylate such as VolpoT7™ available from Croda. Such a wetting agent may be present in amountsof from 0.001% to 0.5%, more especially from 0.002% to 0.1%.

The compositions of the invention may also include minor amounts ofoptional ingredients such as fragrances or colourants, provided thatsuch optional ingredients do not deleteriously affect the anti-smearingor anti-static properties of the compositions.

In order to better illustrate the invention, Examples and ComparativeExamples were prepared and tested as illustrated in Table 1 below.Examples 1 and 2 are examples of the invention and Examples V to Z arecomparative examples.

In order to assess the level of smearing caused by these formulations,samples of the formulations were applied in predetermined amounts to aclean dry paper towel which was then applied to a clean glass mirrortile and moved once with even pressure across the tile. After allowingthe tile to dry, the level of smearing was assessed using a scale of 0to 4 where 4 indicates severe smears or streaks and 0 indicates nosmears or streaks.

The anti-static properties of the formulations were tested using aCharge Decay Test Unit from John Chubb Instrumentation, Cheltenham, UK.The test procedure involves the induction of a static charge on asurface and measurement of the time taken for the charge to dissipate.The latter time is expressed as 1/e and a lower value indicates a higherrate of charge dissipation and better antistatic properties. Tests werecarried out on glass and on polycarbonate surfaces and the results areindicated in Table 1 below.

                  TABLE 1                                                         ______________________________________                                        Example/Comparative                                                                       % w/w                                                             Example     1      2      V    W    X    Y    Z.sup.(2)                       ______________________________________                                        Butoxypropanol                                                                            2.1    2.1    2.1  2.1  2.1  2.1                                  Methoxyisopropanol                                                                        1.8    1.8    1.8  1.8  1.8  1.8                                  Polyoxyethylene                                                                           0.3    0.3    0.3                                                 (15) oleylamide                                                               Sodium laurylether        0.29 0.29                                           sulphate                                                                      Sodium lauryl             0.43 0.43                                           sulphate                                                                      Trideceth 7 0.006         0.006                                               Quaternised 0.1           0.1                                                 hydrolysed keratin                                                            Polyethoxy lauryl                   0.3                                       amide.sup.(1)                                                                 Lactamide                                0.3                                  monoethanolamide.sup.1                                                        Water       100%   100%   100% 100% 100% 100%                                 Smearing level                                                                            0.56   0.25   1.89 0.8                                            Charge dissipation                                                                        0.3                     0.77 6.9  0.3                             time (glass)                                                                  Charge dissipation                                                                        47.9                    >600 >600 >600                            time                                                                          (polycarbonate)                                                               ______________________________________                                    

(1) Polyethoxy lauryl amide and lactamide monoethanolamide areantistatic agents known in the art.

(2) Commercially available product claiming anti-static properties.

Untreated surfaces were also tested for which the charge dissipationtimes were: glass 1.6; polycarbonate >600.

What is claimed is:
 1. An aqueous cleaning composition for hard surfacescomprising, by weight:from 0.1% to 0.5% of one or more alkyl or alkenylethoxylated amides of the formula: ##STR3## in which R is alkyl oralkenyl having from 10 to 25 carbon atoms and n is an integer in therange of from 10 to 20, from 1% to 10% in total of a member selectedfrom the group consisting of propylene glycol n-butyl ether, propyleneglycol methyl ether, a C₆ -C₁₁ alcohol and mixtures thereof, and from0.005% to 0.5% of an anti-static agent which is a water solublequaternary ammonium compound comprising a polypeptide chain coupled tofatty acid groups and having the general formula: ##STR4## in which A₁and A₂ are portions of amino acids, X₁ is a portion of the polypeptidechain, X₂ is another portion of the polypeptide chain and ends in acarboxy terminal amino acid, Y represents a carbon atom in thepolypeptide chain, n and m may be the same or different and each is aninteger in the range of from 8 to 20, and S denotes a side chain.
 2. Acomposition according to claim 1 wherein the ethoxylated amide is oleylethoxylated amide and/or erucic ethoxylated amide.
 3. A compositionaccording to claim 1 wherein the ethoxylated amide is present in anamount of from 0.2% to 0.5%.
 4. A composition according to claim 1 whichcomprises propylene gycol n-butyl ether and/or propylene glycol methylether in an amount of from 3.5% to 5.5%.
 5. An aqueous cleaningcomposition for hard surfaces comprising, by weight:from 0.1% to 0.5% ofone or more alkyl or alkenyl ethoxylated amides of the formula: ##STR5##in which R is alkyl or alkenyl having from 10 to 25 carbon atoms and nis an integer in the range of from 10 to 20, from 1% to 10% in total ofof propylene glycol n-butyl ether, propylene glycol methyl ether, a C₆-C₁₁ alcohol and mixtures thereof, and as an anti-static agent, from0.005% to 0.5% of lauryldimonium hydroxypropyl hydrolysed keratinprotein.
 6. A composition according to claim 1 which further comprisesfrom 0.001% to 0.5% of a wetting agent.
 7. A composition according toclaim 6 in which the wetting agent is a fatty alcohol ethoxylate.
 8. Acomposition according to claim 5 wherein the ethoxylated amide is oleylethoxylated amide and/or erucic ethoxylated amide.
 9. A compositionaccording to claim 5 wherein the ethoxylated amide is present in anamount of from 0.2% to 0.5%.
 10. A composition according to claim 5which comprises propylene glycol n-butyl ether and/or propylene glycolmethyl ether in an amount of from 3.5% to 5.5%.
 11. A compositionaccording to claim 5 which further comprises from 0.001% to 0.5% of awetting agent.
 12. A composition to claim 11 in which the wetting agentis a fatty alcohol ethoxylate.